All That I've Got

They loaded him into a glossy Infinity, and the night air slipped in comfortingly as Frank closed the door.

The other girl, Aaronlyn, sat next to him. Chris drove, and next to him was one of the other males. He was told Natalie was driving his Jeep to the ‘safehouse’ (or whatever the fuck they’d called), too.

Throughout the drive, Frank was practically glued to the window as they got nearer to the city on the horizon. He had to squint to see everything because the glass was all tinted and the sky was dark.

“We’re in Chicago,” a smooth voice said.

Frank turned. It was Aaronlyn who’d spoken. She didn’t look back at him, but instead she was leaning over to see out of Frank’s window too. She had dark skin and her hair was in dreadlocks, clinking with beads.

“Chicago. . .?” Frank said dumbly.

“Oh, have you forgotten that too?” She turned her gaze on him. “It’s a city in Illinois, nicknamed the-”

“‘Windy City’,” Frank finished. “I haven’t forgotten that kind of stuff,” Frank shot her a look, “I just have no idea how I ended up here. Do I live here?”

Aaronlyn pushed her hair away from her face and turned back to her own window.

“No,” she said simply.

“Where do I live, then?” Frank implored.

“If you decide to stay, then you’ll live here- in Chicago,” Aaronlyn said. “This city was the one thing in the world I couldn’t pass up.” As she spoke, she rolled down both of their windows, and Frank saw they were now in the city, buildings shiny and towering.

He craned his head out the window and searched for where the stars hit the building peaks, and he could understand where she was coming from. It was beautiful here, and the air whooshed into Frank’s lungs, filling his body with city and sky and longing. He wasn’t scared to be in this car full of strangers just then.

In fact, he actually trusted them.

They slowed, and the Hancock building passed the car in all its glory- lights all ablaze and people milling about its base.

After that they took a few more turns, winding past delicate parks and down stretches of shops. Then, they pulled into a parking garage, and everyone burst into motion.

Aaronlyn instructed Frank to stand by her as Chris did a head count and Natalie parked the Jeep. Then she put a hand between his shoulder blades and they followed behind the others into an apartment complex.

The inside was ornate and brightly-lit with lush carpet and wallpaper, and it was only a hallway.

They went up in the mirror-lined elevator to the twelfth floor.

Then the group trooped, muttering amongst themselves, to apartment 12C.

Frank’s mouth dropped immediately as he stepped in.

They stood in an entrance alcove, and beyond it was a massive room, with sleek hardwood floors, and the far wall completely taken up by floor-length windows. He could see wrought- iron balconies beyond them.

To their left a hallway branched off from the room, and some of the doors down it revealed other rooms. On their other side there was an archway that led to a stainless-steel kitchen, and a breakfast nook nestled by another giant window.

“Woah,” Frank breathed.

“Yeah, it looks nice, but you should see the monthly rent for this thing,” Chris said before shucking off his jacket and moving into the apartment. The others followed, kicking off shoes, completely comfortable here. Unlike Frank.

“Anyways, welcome to our home,” Chris said.

“Wait, all of you live here?” Frank asked. He had refused to take off his tennis shoes (or anything else for that matter)

“Yes,” Chris answered. Everyone was dispersing throughout the house, going into the kitchen or down the hallway. “We’ll answer your questions later, Frank. For now, you should get something to eat. And you if choose to stay, you can sleep in Alex’s room.”

A head poked out of the kitchen. “I heard my name,” a kid said. He was a few years older than Frank, and had dyed-pink hair (how had Frank missed that ?).

“Can Frank stay in your room, Alex?” Chris asked him then.

“Yeah, sure,” Alex responded, then took a hunking bite out of the sandwich he held.

Chris sighed and turned back to Frank. “Okay, why don’t you follow Alex, and he’ll get you dinner. Do you trust us enough to stay here, Frank?”

The weird thing was that he did. The moment he’d first laid eyes on them he knew deep in stomach that he was going to go with them, that he was going trust them. They were the only choice, and they seemed to know more about Frank than he did himself.

Frank just nodded, and with that motion all thoughts of ditching this place and sleeping in his car vanished.

Natalie went with him to the kitchen, and sat on a bar stool by him. Alex babbled to her as he made two more sandwiches. Frank flinched for some reason when Alex put a huge stack of ham on the bread slices, but when it was placed in front of him, he ate it readily.

He hadn’t really registered how hungry he was, seeing as he’d been side-tracked by waking up in a car and then being taken in by people he’d never met before.

“So, Frank, you really don’t remember anything?” Alex asked suddenly, leaning casually on the counter from Frank.

Natalie whacked him, but didn’t try to stop Frank from answering.

“I remember- I remember facts, I guess. Like I know how to drive, and how to solve math problems in my head. But I can’t remember anything personal- any real memories from. . . before,” Frank answered after some thought.

Natalie looked at him empathically, and Alex kind of looked down. “Sorry, man. I can’t imagine,” he said.

Frank took a bite out of his sandwich, hoping to force the knot in his throat down. “It’s not all that bad, I guess. I just wish I had an idea why it happened,” Frank said when he could speak normally.

Natalie thought for a moment, glossy hair hiding her face before she turned to Frank. “There are answers out there, you know. Nothing ever happens without leaving a mark.”

Nothing ever happens without leaving a mark. Somewhere in this world, there was a Frank sized marked, a giant disaster, and Frank needed to find it.

“You’re saying I could find out what happened?” Frank looked into her eyes, searching.

She looked back, then nodded. “But you should wait, maybe you’ll remember after a while. I just know that Chris knows a lot of the answers, but he won’t be able to tell you.”

Alex had gone quiet, but he was watching them intently. He had made no move to stop Natalie from letting Frank in on things Frank obviously wasn’t supposed to know.

“Why are you telling me this?” Frank asked.

“Because no one should be left in the dark,” Natalie answered fiercely, before she jumped down from the stool and left the room.

“That girl,” Alex said with an unreadable expression. “Anyways, let’s go to bed.”

He let Frank stuff the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth, then dragged him out of the kitchen.